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Chuck Schumer’s war on science

You probably missed this the first time around, but Roger Pielke reminds readers that last month, Senator Charles Schumer pressured scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) not to label Sandy a hurricane. He had a perfectly understandable reason — doing so might have cost his constituents lots of money by significantly raising insurance deductibles. Senator Schumer told reporters at the time that “we’ve sent a letter to NOAA, the weather agency… that we’re looking over their shoulder. We want NOAA to keep this classified as a tropical storm and to save homeowners in New York and Long Island thousands of dollars.”

The press has had a field day for weeks with Senator Marco Rubio’s comments about the age of the earth, since that fits neatly into their narrative of a “Republican war on science”. But when a major Democrat thuggishly intimidates actual scientists, there’s nary a peep.